Multiple neoplasms in a single sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil

Abstract

Tumors are thought rare in dinosaurs, previously limited in distribution to a single family – hadrosaurs. Here we recognized two different neoplastic lesions, osteoma and hemangioma, in a single caudal vertebra of a titanosaur dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil, diagnosed on the basis of macroscopic, radiological and histological analysis. This is the first occurrence of neoplasia in a non-hadrosaur dinosaur. Therefore, neoplasia is not restricted to hadrosaur dinosaurs, as previously suggested.